Think junk mail is nothing more than an annoyance? It might surprise you to know that 100 million trees are used in just one year to produce junk mail. Here is what you can do to reduce that impact.
Although at least 19 bills have been introduced at the state level to stop junk mail, they have all been defeated due to pressure from the direct mail industry.
The best thing to do with junk mail is to take your name off of the lists. Junk mail tends to propagate quickly. First you are on one list and then another and another until you are practically drowning. Most days, 75 percent of what I take out of the mailbox goes straight into the recycling bin.
There are a few different services that will help you get your name and address off of the prospective junk mail lists. Some of these services require a small fee (from $1 to $20), while others are free. Some services you can try include: http://www.the-dma.org/index.php, http://www.myjunktree.com, http://ProQuo.com and http://41pounds.org.
In some cases, it may take up to 90 days for the junk mail to stop, so you will have to be a bit patient.
I also wanted to give a special mention of holiday catalogues because they are a huge issue when it comes to our resources. It seems as though the catalogues get bigger and bigger every year, and we can be flooded with several versions of catalogues per brand as the holiday season draws near. In fact, there has been some news about how holiday catalogues can threaten vital forest.
The best thing that you can do here is to contact the companies directly and tell them that you no longer want to receive a catalogue. I have found that the easiest way to do this is to call customer service departments.
You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here!
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